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Meeting Teachers’ Needs: Reaching Literacy Through Grammar in Indigenous Schools

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Glenda Shopen  and
Ruth Hickey
Glenda Shopen
Affiliation:
School of Education, James Cook University, PO Box 6811, Cairns, Queensland, 4870, Australia
Ruth Hickey
Affiliation:
School of Education, James Cook University, PO Box 6811, Cairns, Queensland, 4870, Australia
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Abstract

Many teachers and teaching assistants report that they lack an understanding of Standard Australian English grammar and that this hinders their work with Indigenous students who are learning English as a second language. This paper reports on the success of an accredited professional development strategy in Far North Queensland. This strategy is not based on out-of-context grammar lessons but promotes the idea that grammar is best learnt in communicative and collaborative classrooms which value fun and visual performance. The grammar activities are also embedded in current strategies for the teaching of literacy. This kind of professional development can reinvigorate teachers’ practices in order to increase literacy outcomes in Indigenous schools.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 31 , 2003 , pp. 25 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2003

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